


Groundstroke

by VerdePradera



Series: Lawlight Week 2020 [1]
Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Tennis, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, ProTennisPlayer!L, ProTennisPlayer!Light, Wimbledon - Freeform, handjobs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:46:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23791810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VerdePradera/pseuds/VerdePradera
Summary: Their long rivalry aside, L never fails to surprise Light in and outside the court, sometimes that doesn't end well. Sometimes it does.L, Light, Wimbledon's final and everything that comes afterwards that day.A Pro Tennis Players AU for Lawlight Week 2020
Relationships: L/Yagami Light
Series: Lawlight Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1714048
Comments: 3
Kudos: 33





	Groundstroke

**Author's Note:**

> _Groundstroke:_ a forehand or backhand shot that is executed after the ball bounces once on the court.  
> A fic for Lawlight Week 2020, Day 1: Rivals  
> 

Forty-love.  
  
Game, Yagami.  
  
Take that L, you’ll be losing in your home country once more after this. You can keep all your Roland Garros titles and wins over clay all you want, but as long as Wimbledon has grass your country will never see you win here ever again.  
  
This is the third ace I have taken from L in this set, and it’s only the fourth game. I am sure I can get at least another one before I win my third set and claim victory.  
Wimbledon finals are and will always be my favorites, the whole world stops to look at me play, even L’s princes come to see me trash their best player through the ground from their Royal Box.  
  
God bless grass courts.  
  
I win the match. 3-1  
  
L still lays on his side on the grass where he has fallen trying to stop my match point. He rolls around feigning pain for a dramatic effect. I pretend not to see him while I laugh at the sky and throw my hands up in the air. Defeating L never stops feeling exhilarating.  
  
L frowns at me from the floor, I love it when he falls after a long volley, it’s nice looking at him trying to get on his knees while he gets up. Grass and soil stick to his knees and legs, it’s a pity that we are both wearing white, those grass stains look particularly hideous against his clothes. At least he will throw those away and never have to wear them again, nobody wants to keep their loser clothes.  
  
I go to the middle of the court for a handshake at the net with my hand extended, L jumps in for a hug, squeezing my lungs. His hands clap at my back awkwardly. I’m afraid I’m starting to suspect he is up to something.  
  
With his arms still around me L talks into my ear ‘Good match today, Grass King, you looked great.’ There’s a hint of mischievousness in his voice when he adds ‘Though you looked better naked in my sheets last night.’  
  
I stiffen in L’s hold, breath hitching, and resist the urge to push L away as far as my body can manage. ‘Shut up, people are reading our lips,’ I whisper back angrily while subtly pinching L’s back with all the strength in my fingers.  
  
‘Ow, ow, Light this is not the place for your sadistic tendencies stop that!’ he whines while I pinch even harder, this will leave him a bruise. ‘Calm down, Tyrant King, I’m hiding my mouth with your hair, stop worrying.’ His voice feels honest and he has stopped squeezing the air out of my lungs. I release my iron hold on his side. ‘We better agree soon on what we will say if anyone asks what we were talking about now,’ I say into his own mess of hair tamed with a bandana as we pull apart. The last thing any of us need is a gay sex scandal because L got too cheeky.  
  
We shake the judge’s hand and I spend some good minutes basking in my glory while L sits on his bench sulking. Ryuk comes to me and claps me on my back, he smells of strawberries and cream, sometimes I feel he likes Wimbledon even more than me, he always manages to get served his own weight of whipped cream. It’s almost as bad as L.  
  
‘You did well Light, another win for your 58 straight wins on grass courts, you’ll break another record soon,’ Ryuk says while I get ready for the winner’s speech. I have written it weeks ago and have long since memorized what I wanted to say, but it’s always nice to add new bits and pieces to fine tune it to this tournament.  
  
It ends up being a jovial speech about the beauty of tennis, sports and how much I love beating L’s ass at the most prestigious tournament three years in a row, the last part I say in my mind while the interviewer comments on how I feel after defeating L once more in The Championship’s final. I tell her it’s always an honor to have L as my rival in court and I greatly respect him.  
  
This is, probably, the one thing I am being entirely honest in this whole speech. He may be a pain and bring second-hand embarrassment when he pulls pranks on other people or blatant outrage when he throws taunts at the opposing players, but his skills are formidable, occasional cheap shots in losing games aside.  
  
L smiles and bows for the camera as I say this. Freaking clown he is.  
  
L talks about grass, his loss, the strawberries and the fact that I looked particularly good today, I suppress the need to tell him to shut it. After he finishes he sends me a bunch of weird signs to tell me to meet him in some secret room near the place where the press conference will be held. It’s either that or he is just very horny and wants to fuck with a broom.  
  
After a walk-through across Center Court with cameras everywhere, a lot of people showing me things I already know and handshaking everyone and their mother while I get clapped on the back so many times I might develop some serious bruising there, I finally I get the time to change into warmer clothes and find the opportunity to go wherever L was signaling me earlier. I tell Ryuk I have something to check before the press conference and slip into the halls as discreetly as I can until I find the room L probably wanted to meet me in.  
  
Some boringly normal looking door that might as well be a janitor’s closet meets me at the end of a long empty hall. It wouldn’t surprise me if it actually was a closet full of chemical products and other cleaning supplies. He probably just wants to make out with the brooms watching us, like some horny teenager. I wouldn’t even have come here if I didn’t want to settle things with L.  
  
I knock on the door just in case this is some poor joke and this is actually some office or a secret toilet. At the lack of response I turn the knob and get in, making sure nobody sees me going inside. It’s dark; I turn on my phone’s flashlight to reveal some sort of bare room with piles of boxes everywhere. At least it doesn’t have brooms.  
  
No signs of L though. I have been waiting for ten minutes and I’m about to leave when I hear some rustling and boxes being moved around. L comes out from behind a two meter pile of boxes that must be for some supplies. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you were there? I have been waiting here like a fool.’  
  
‘I have just arrived Light, I came through a secret passage. I ended up needing more time than I thought,’ L says as he shakes off dust from his freshly changed clothes. ‘Stop with the nonsense,’ I groan and start brushing the dust off his white jacket. God, Wimbledon is, in so many ways, a tournament really not meant for L.  
  
Once I’ve violently patted every spec of dust away from his clothes and decided L looks presentable enough, I look him in the eye and say, in the most commanding tone I can manage in some empty storage closet lit only by my phone’s flashlight, ‘You are going to tell them that you were feeling so crushed and defeated after having lost the championships finals two times in a row by me, that you just wanted to be comforted and get some encouragement so as not to cry on camera, understood?’ L looks like he wants to say something but I cut him off before he can get anything out. ‘And you are going to say, exactly in these words” Light told me “you are the greatest player” and then add, acting very touched “you will get it next year, I know you will”’  
  
‘Why don’t I tell them that you are the brightest and most amazing player as well, uh? There is no way in hell I’m ever saying that Light. Not everyone wants to be a fake bitch on camera,’ L spits back at me with anger blazing on his eyes. L is uncooperative at best on a good day, after losing like this in front of millions of people? Impossible. I sigh; I might as well give him something to vent off so he doesn’t go off on me in front of the cameras later.  
  
‘What do you suggest we say then?’ L has a crazy glint in his eyes right now and I know I will not like his answer.  
  
‘I suggest we say the truth, we were whispering gay confessions while I felt you up for millions to see,’ L spats at me so defiantly that I see red.  
  
‘NO, we will not say that and we never will. I want us to settle on what we will say word for word and we will say them by heart. The whole world wants to see us broken and humiliated, they want to see us fall and deteriorate like every other sports star so they can gossip about it nonstop for the next ten years, but we will not give them that pleasure,’ I say while holding his arm and pressing it as hard as I can to make a point.  
  
‘You are so insane! It doesn’t matter, none of this matters, nobody cares about it and no one will ask about it. Stop blowing everything out of proportion and making plans for every single thing just because I had some form of bodily contact with you in a match, you are delusional!’ if L wants to fight this out, I’m going to give him just that.  
  
‘Nobody cares? Are you stupid? Everyone cares! They are always watching us! I opened my bathroom window today while I was showering and some fucking papparazzo was spying on me from the building in front of my hotel! It was a thirtieth floor hotel room! Some lowly fucker in the staff must have revealed my room to the media and now I have to switch rooms if I don't want to have my naked pictures on the cover of The Sun! Do you think we can just go around pretending nothing happened sprouting some half-assed lies?’  
  
My tone is climbing higher and my blood is rushing but I can not stop feeling my anger growing. ‘Bad news for you L! We can’t, we can’t do anything without thousands of rumours going around, our every single interaction scrutinized with a magnifying glass and dissected piece by piece for the enjoyment of old fuckers sitting on their couches and bored housewives. And I don’t want to have my entire legacy burnt to the ground because you couldn’t refrain from touching me!’  
  
L lifts his hand and places it on my shoulder softly ‘Shhhh, it’s okay Light, calm down.’ I notice my shoulders have come up to my jaw and I’m shaking with anger and frustration as L caresses me softly, ‘I’m sorry, I just wanted to grope you a bit and annoy you, I didn’t know you were so worked up over this already.’  
  
Neither did I, apparently. I will my muscles to relax and force myself to stop shaking. I breathe in and out and slowly as I can. ‘Just stop that, don’t say that anymore, don’t even think about it. We don’t need to come out and for the love of… Stop touching me in public, we can do plenty of that back at your place, no need for the cameras to see.’ I hate talking about this topic so much. We can never really agree on anything about this without fighting and screaming our lungs out. Relationships are too hard.  
  
L looks at me and agrees, begrudgingly. I know it’s a lie and he will bring it up again later but at least he won’t try that again for a while. That will be a war to be fought tomorrow. Still, for now, I choose to just settle on winning this battle. And carrots tend to work better than sticks with L.  
  
Slowly, I cup his face and kiss him until I get a groan from him. L melts into it, moving me closer until the space between us vanishes and his hands roam my back. Then I let one of my hands get under his shirt and I murmur with the raspiest voice I can manage ‘Will you tell in the press conference that I was comforting you?’ I see the beginnings of a no form on his lips so I drag my hand further down and press it against the bulge in his pants to emphasize my point. He gasps and presses his hips against my hand and ‘I don’t want to,’ is all he can manage to say breathily.  
  
L is in the mood of being stubborn, so I press harder on his pants while holding his member through the cloth with my fingers ‘Wouldn’t you say I’m giving you good moral support? I think I’m being quite comforting to you.’  
  
L just grunts and I stop moving my hand, I am not giving up on this ‘Will you agree with me? I want to hear it.’  
  
‘Alright, whatever, but get your hand under my underwear now or I’ll go insane,’ L whines as I do as told and slip my fingers inside his clothes.  
  
He moans and thrusts into my hand as I press my thumb softly over the shaft, I let a smug smile escape me as L keeps moaning while I run my hand up and down his cock.  
  
RING  
  
We both jump as my phone startles us, I look at the screen and see an incoming call from Ryuk. ‘Ignore it, we are busy,’ says L desperately, he is probably close, ‘It might be important; he never calls if it isn’t.’ That’s a lie, but I’m still a bit annoyed at him from earlier so I answer the call.  
  
‘They need Lawliet now, it’s time for the Loser Press Conference.’ Ryuk’s voice is low enough so L can’t hear, luckily. The last thing I need is him getting grumpy because Ryuk reminded him he lost.  
  
Still, I frown as I ask ‘Why are you calling me?.’  
  
‘Lawliet doesn’t have his phone with him. I know you are somewhere with him. Tell him to come.’ I grimace at this, he caught me red-handed. ‘Just tell him to come, I don’t want to hear anything else, Wammy is going to kill him.’ Hopefully, it will be after the Press Conference. Ryuk hangs up and I look at L.  
  
‘They are looking for you. And it seems you forgot your phone.’  
  
L groans and tries to convince me to keep on with the ministrations. I agree to it because at this point I might as well finish him, he was pretty close anyways.  
  
L comes in my hand and I take my handkerchief and clean us both as best as I can while L rides off his orgasm.  
  
‘Now go, fast, I don’t want to get scolded by your coach as well,’ I say as I shove him off to the direction where he came from. He stumbles a bit and almost knocks off a couple of boxes on his way. I leave the room as quietly as I can and head to the Conference room at a leisurely pace.  
  
L somehow still manages to arrive even later than me at the press conference. Wammy seems to be about to have a stroke when he sees me settling alone with no signs of L in the proximity. Five minutes later he appears looking as languid and aloof as ever, I cover my mouth with my hand to hide a smile that keeps pulling at the corners of my mouth.  
  
In the end he says what we agreed on and I grin and charm my way through my own interview. The rest of the evening is a blur of photos, questions and a lot of physical therapy from my medical team to relax my body and check I don’t have any injuries. By the time we are finished it’s almost midnight and every bone in my body screams for sleep.  
  
I climb into a limousine while covering my face with a scarf and with only a night bag with basic supplies on me. As an added security measure I change cars three times before I reach L’s apartment and even then I tell the driver to leave me three blocks away, he probably doesn’t even know we are near one of L’s apartments but I can never be too safe.  
  
The security guard is already waiting for me at the entrance, he lets me in and tells me the current password for L’s lift. I smile, thank him, and go inside as fast as I can.  
  
I open the door with my key and see L sprawled over the couch fully naked. He lifts an eyebrow that disappears under his bangs. That’s enough to have me dropping my bag and rushing to him.  
  
I’m sure we go at it for at least four rounds, I’m not really sure because after the third one I was seeing one too many stars. L is rough and demanding but that is good. The sex is always good after one of us has lost a match to the other. I prefer it to the times we lose to someone else, those are just too frustrating. We end up falling asleep around three or maybe it was four, who knows.  
  
‘Light, Light, I had an idea!’ L shakes me awake and I open my eyes to him sitting on that strange squat he does when he has been awake thinking for too long. He probably only slept a handful of hours and spent the rest watching me sleep and thinking tennis strategies. The morning sun is barely there behind the clouds but I guess it must be somewhere around nine a.m. Too damn early for this.

‘You think they would ever lend me the Centre Court for one night unsupervised?’ L says, way too excited about it.

‘For what? So you can fuck me on grass until my knees get scrapped raw?’ I spat at him, because I am in no mood to humor him this early on.

‘Well that would be interesting to try’ A smirk creeps up his face, I want to roll my eyes.

‘Really L? You want us to have sex in the Centre Court of Wimbledon? Not Roland Garros? Are you sure your ego can manage that?’

‘Light, let’s be realistic here; there is no way in a thousand lives that the French would let me stay in that court for a single second that is not necessary, much less unsupervised’

I chuckle a bit at that, ‘That’s what you get for telling them their prize money is not as good as other grand slams, you give yourself such bad PR with them, they’ll ban you from joining it one day.’

L moves to lay next to me as his ego takes over ‘As if they would ever let go of their greatest champion. They may hate my guts but they still need me, no player has ever brought as many viewers as me.’

I snort and snide at him ‘I can’t believe people think I’m egocentric when you are just as bad as me.’ L cards his fingers through my hair and slides his hand upwards to cup my face, humming noncommittally. He does this when he wants to distract me from the topic at hand, I’m still very sated by my 3th consecutive win at Wimbledon and the post-coital bliss that L has left me in last night, so I let him get away with it.

I kiss him softly while running my fingers through his well defined arms. It feels nice, bantering with L in bed when the light is hitting just right and his pale skin that never tans shines softly and his dark eyes draw me in. I press my palm on his chest, fingers right over his heart and smile smugly at him. L smiles back, a hint of a smirk peeking in there.

L is a good rival, with his steely grit and sly games, always playing from behind the baseline switching between offense and defense. Moving fast and always coming at you, never letting you really pin him down. Besides, he is also a good lover, in his own way, even when he is trying to throw us both out of the closet.  
  
Still, issues aside, I wouldn’t give him up as neither a rival nor a lover. He is, after all, the one person who will always rise to my challenges and fight me head on in the court and outside of it. 

It may not always show but my heart holds only love for him. 

**Author's Note:**

> Terms and references:
> 
>  _Wimbledon:_ Also called The Championships is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, and is regarded by many as the most prestigious. The third of the four annual Grand Slam tournaments.(Taken from Wikipedia)  
>  _Roland Garros:_ It is the premier clay court tennis championship tournament in the world and the second of the four annual Grand Slam tournaments.(Taken from Wikipedia)  
>  _Volley:_ A volley in tennis is a shot in which the ball is struck before it bounces on the ground. Generally a player hits a volley while standing near the net. (Taken from Wikipedia)  
>  _Grass King:_ L calls Light this because Light's aggressive and quick playing style is the best suited for grass courts and gives him a great advantage over L who's playing style is that of a defensive baseliner and suits clay courts better.  
>  _Center Court:_ The main court at Wimbledon.
> 
> Plot twist: There was no secret passage in the storage room, L just ran to the room as soon as he managed and hid in there laughing and staring at Light until he had had enough. The only reason Light didn't notice was because he was too busy thinking about how he was going to scold L. I might add another chapter later about that.  
>   
> Hit me up on Tumblr at https://halfiez.tumblr.com


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